


A Bittersweet Christmas

by Lady_Darkness



Category: Hannibal (TV)
Genre: Angst, Christmas, F/M, First Kiss, M/M, yes it’s Hannibal and Will kissing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-24
Updated: 2017-12-24
Packaged: 2019-02-19 20:15:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,065
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13131327
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lady_Darkness/pseuds/Lady_Darkness
Summary: After Hannibal’s trial, Will tries to build up the normal life he’s been craving since forever. He celebrates his first Christmas with his future wife and stepson, but there is one man he cannot let go.





	A Bittersweet Christmas

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Flatfootmonster](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Flatfootmonster/gifts).



> I came up with this while listening to Raul Malo’s version of ‘Cold Cold Heart’.  
> Poor Molly will never really have Will’s heart because of all he’s been through. But does he really want to let it all go?
> 
> As usual, thank you Becs and Joanie! I love you❤️

  
A Bittersweet Christmas

Will met Molly only a few months after Hannibal’s trial. Her honey sweet smile and kind eyes were a refreshing change from the now well known burning amber of Hannibal’s and his all round intensity. She also had two adopted strays who had taken to Will the first time they met up in the park. When he finally got to meet Wally, the two of them also clicked. Molly thought she had finally found someone who fit into her little family after the tragic loss of her husband. She could see the sadness behind her new boyfriend’s smile but she figured he would come to her when he needed to. Their relationship was simple, normal and sweet. The two of them enjoyed the long walks they took with their combined pack and other outdoor activities. Their talks often revolved around the mundane things of their lives or Wally’s school results. In short, life was perfectly normal good and impossibly boring.

Now they were celebrating their first Christmas together as a family. Molly had decorated their house in a very traditional way. She’d put tinsel all around and a huge christmas tree in the lounge. The decorations were garish compared to the ones Hannibal used to decorate his home and office with, but he guessed Hannibal had been an exception. He’d had taste, even though it bordered on the grotesque at times. Chrismas music sounded through the whole house when the dogs were quiet for a minute, which was not often. Molly was in the kitchen, preparing their meal, which would consist of tuna casserole with a twist and chocolate mousse as dessert. Her meals were never complicated nor sophisticated, and Will found himself yearning for some of the dishes he had discovered during his friendship with the cannibal.

The sounds were strangely soothing to Will, who hadn’t felt anything like Christmas spirit in years. He enjoyed his quiet new life, away from the FBI and serial killers’ minds but part of him missed the time he had spent with Hannibal. He missed their conversations terribly. He had never before felt so understood and accepted as when he spent time with the older man. The physical attraction had only come when he’d seen him again in Florence. The pang of guilt and pain he’d experienced seeing him sit in the Uffizi gallery had hit him hard. He regretted his actions later like he had never regretted anything before. What would have happened if he’d just followed Hannibal to his residence? Why did he have to pull out that damn knife? He’d forgiven him for his actions that night in Baltimore, he had even forgiven him for killing Abigail. He only blamed himself for what happened in Florence. If he had just kept his wits about him they could have fled together, without being found by Mason’s henchmen. He shook his head in denial. It wouldn’t do to be thinking about that. He’d made his choice, he had put the most dangerous serial killer behind bars for the rest of his life. The world was a safer place with Hannibal in that plexiglass cage. He had made his only friend turn himself in because he had rejected him... the pain nearly suffocated him.

The air felt damp and his lungs protested whenever he tried to take a deep breath, his heart beating so fast he thought he was going to have a heart attack. Everything seemed to be closing in on him, he couldn’t stay in the house for a minute longer. Forcing himself to calm down he grabbed his coat and called out to Molly.

“I’m going for a walk, I’ll be back shortly!”

Molly only hmm’ed in response and went back to cooking. She knew something was bothering her husband to be, had been bothering him the whole time since they’d met, but she wasn’t one to push him to talk about his feelings. She knew he would talk about it when he was ready for her to hear.

He ran from the house, into the snow that had been falling for the last few hours. When he arrived at the edge of the woods surrounding the house, he slowed his pace to a fast walk. His breath was visible in the cold air as he made his way through the trees. He stopped when he came to the pond he always went to when he needed to clear his mind. He’d spent countless hours here when Molly and Walter had just moved in and living with people around him just became too much for a while. Whenever he came here he reminisced mostly about the time he spent trying to catch Hannibal in the act. Back then he had started out hating him, but the longer they had spent together, the more he had seen their similarities and the more he had accepted the darkness inside of him. The part of him that really wanted to run away with the doctor had grown stronger and stronger, until Hannibal had decided to go and kill his unborn child. Then doubt had set in again and he’d finally not decided at all. He’d warned Hannibal Jack was coming, which had lead to the dramatic events in his kitchen.

Ever since Hannibal’s arrest he’d felt bad about his decision to turn him away, to refuse him. He couldn’t believe the man could feel something like love, but he had known what he had to do to make Hannibal turn himself in. He had done just that, he should feel relieved that it was all over, that he finally had the chance of a normal life. Now no one was waiting to abuse his empathy anymore. Jack had finally understood he couldn’t take it anymore after what had happened at the Verger farm.  
He guessed it only took Hannibal trying to eat his brain and Mason to steal his face to make Jack stop bugging him. He’d tried to go back to teaching, but that hadn’t worked out either. In the end he had decided to remain unemployed for a while. His savings and the royalties from his book could tide him over for a while. Then he’d met Molly and he had found a more or less steady job as a motor boat mechanic. His life really had turned out for the best, so why was he here, feeling as if someone just told him he’d have to shoot all of his dogs?

A soft rustling sound from behind startled him. Will turned around, his hand going for the gun that wasn’t there, but all he saw was Winston’s brown fur. The dog must have snuck out of the house behind him, unnoticed until now. He crouched down to pet the animal. He’d stayed around during all of what had happened over the years, since he’d found him next to the road in Wolf Trap. The bond he had formed with this stray was extraordinary. In a way he had seen Will through the whole debacle with Hannibal, Winston may have been the reason he’d come out of it with his sanity more or less intact.

After about an hour of solitude in the woods, Will decided to go back to the house. He slowly made his way with Winston at his side. The rest of his pack ran out of the door when they heard him approach. He played for a bit with them before he got back in.

Molly greeted him with a worried smile and kissed him on the cheek when he entered the kitchen.

“Will, can you put the dishes on the table, everything is almost ready.”

He smiled at her, but not really seeing her.

“Of course. Will you call for Wally then?”

Molly nodded and rushed upstairs to look for her son, her blonde hair moving back and forth as she walked away. She was a beautiful and fiercely intelligent woman, who had been taking care of her son alone for some time now. She knew something was off, and she was willing to bet it had something to do with that Hannibal Lecter who always got mentioned when her boyfriend’s name appeared in that online paper she usually avoided like the plague. She felt a pang of sadness at the faraway look in Will’s eyes when he had come in from the cold. Her heart went out to the beautiful man she was planning on marrying next spring.  
When she came back down with Wally in tow, they found him staring through the window, looking at something that wasn’t there.

All through Christmas dinner Will couldn’t stop thinking about Hannibal and all the times they had shared meals at the older man’s house. He particularly remembered the time Hannibal had prepared the lomo saltado for them, after he’d brought the remains of Randall Tier to share. Hannibal had thought it was Freddie Lounds, but that didn’t matter at the time. That night, Will had eaten human meat, long pig as he had called it, voluntarily and he had liked the taste of it. Then again, he didn’t think Hannibal was capable of cooking something that wasn't delicious. What he remembered most of all from that night was the looks Hannibal had thrown him during dinner. The heat had been clear in his eyes, he’d looked like a man in love. He wondered what would have happened if Hannibal had made advances that night, if he had acted on those feelings that were so clearly there.

In his mind he could feel Hannibal’s gaze on him, like it had been that night, his eyes burning with a softness Will had never seen in them before. He could almost feel him come closer, right after dinner, to take away his plate.

_His arm brushed slightly against Will’s back, which made Will look up at his host. Their eyes found each other, burning amber meeting cool and stormy blue. When Hannibal bent over to actually take the plate, Will felt his breath ghost over his cheek. He turned his head and found himself really close to Hannibal’s clean shaven face. He smelled the older man’s aftershave, something lingering and expensive. The two men didn’t move, it was as if they were stuck in time and space. Hannibal slowly turned his head and looked Will in the eyes. Will’s slightly parted lips must have looked inviting because he suddenly found them kissed. Hannibal slid his soft mouth gently against Will’s. Just a touch of lips, nothing more. Will moaned, opening his mouth to Hannibal’s probing tongue, enjoying the feel of those silky lips against his._

“Will?” Molly asked, apparently slightly annoyed.

He jumped at the sound of her voice. Suddenly he no longer was in Hannibal’s stylishly decorated Baltimore residence, but in his house in Wolf Trap he now shared with Molly and Walter, while they were waiting for their new cabin to be finished. They were having Christmas dinner and he’d just checked out to daydream about the man he’d sworn he never wanted to see again. He instantly felt guilty and blushed fiercely.

“I’m sorry Molly... it’s just...”

“You don’t have to apologise, Will. I know you’ve been through some hard times, but we’ll get through that together. Just stay with us for now. Let’s eat together.” she said, smiling, while gently stroking his cheek with her small hand.

They spent an agreeable evening, the three of them. Will and Walter played a few rounds of checkers against each other and afterwards they shared Molly’s mother’s home made cookies and made hot cocoa together. Will almost felt good by the time they curled up on the sofa together to watch a silly old Christmas movie, even though he couldn’t stop his mind from wandering off to the man caught in the BSHCI, behind the plexiglass windows and on display for the whole psychiatric world.

Later that night, when Wally was upstairs in his bedroom, Will took Molly to bed. When she sighed her sweet cries of pleasure against his skin, the only thing he could think about was the look in Hannibal’s eyes when they had shared the ortolan. A single tear slid down his cheek. He knew he had made the wrong decision and he would have to find a way to keep living with it.

The End


End file.
